Get FREE update from Owojela's Blog by simply entering your e-mail

Apple Shazam: Why is this top US company buying the music app?

Scan your eyes over Apple's just-published
list of the year's most popular iPhone apps, and there's one notable omission:
Shazam.

In fact,
it's been a while since the song-identifying software squeezed its way into the
iOS App Store's top 10.

So, why has
Apple confirmed it is "combining" its business with that of the
smaller London company?

It has not
revealed the price it is paying, but the sum is rumoured to be as much as $400m
(£300m), which would make it one of Apple's most expensive takeovers to date.

The US
technology giant also hasn't disclosed its motivations beyond saying that it
has "exciting plans in store".

But there
are several reasons the deal may have appealed.

Apple's
smart assistant, Siri, already taps into Shazam, allowing users to verbally
ask: "What song is playing?" and has done so for more than three
years.

But with
growing competition between Apple Music and Spotify - which also ties into
Shazam - Apple may have felt the need to secure the service rather than risk
its Swedish rival or some other company buying it first.

Apple has
said that Shazam is a "natural fit" for its streaming music platform.

Some,
however, believe that the real value of the acquisition isn't Shazam's
technology - which Apple could presumably have developed a version of itself
for a smaller sum - but rather the data Shazam has gathered for more than a
decade about its millions of users.

"Spotify
has made the discovery of new music front and centre of what makes it a
compelling proposition," said Mark Mulligan, from the consultancy Midia
Research.

"Apple
just doesn't have the same amount of data about listening tastes as Spotify,
meaning it can't drive recommendations with as high a degree of accuracy and
precision.

"Shazam
essentially gives it a shortcut to having a massive database."

So, locking
in one of the key song-discovery services and potentially deepening the way
Shazam ties into Apple's wider ecosystem has a certain logic.

Apple will
be mindful that first Google Now and subsequently Google Assistant have used
in-house technology to let Android users identify songs.

That helped
the search giant add a clever feature to its recently released Pixel 2 phone:
the handset proactively shows the name of songs it hears on its home screen
without waiting to be asked.

Moreover, it
does this without requiring an active internet connection thanks to it
periodically updating an on-device database of tens of thousands of tracks, and
carrying out the whole song-matching process on the phone.

To let Siri
replicate the trick or add innovations of its own, Apple might have felt it
needed to bring Shazam in-house.

Apple has
long portrayed itself as a company that goes the extra mile to protect its
users' privacy, so it would presumably reject the idea of allowing a third-party
to run an always-listening service on its devices.

Apple's
Homepod smart speaker - a rival to the Amazon Echo and Google Home - has had
its release date delayed despite the hardware being unveiled back in June.

That points
to the problem being with its software.

Perhaps some
of Shazam's audio-recognition technology might provide a quick fix, or at the
very least Apple might believe it could add extra capabilities in the future.

While Shazam
is best known for its song-matching capabilities, the app has also been adding
augmented reality features.

He has
repeatedly called AR more "profound" than virtual reality, which
limits users to computer-generated views.

Shazam has
focused on offering its AR capabilities to brands.

Fanta has
used it as a way to let users bring posters for its soft drinks to life, while
if users held their phone over a bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin they could see
images of its ingredients grow out of its sides before prompting them to
explore cocktail recipes.

Another
British start-up, Blippar, has already demonstrated that merging real-world
object recognition and AR has uses beyond advertising - it offers a way to show
information about people seen standing nearby.

Perhaps,
Apple is keen to build on Shazam's efforts to develop killer features of its
own for the launch of its much-rumoured AR glasses.

Trending Posts

Atiku
Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
will arrive the United States any moment from now, crossing one of the most
serious political hurdles on his path ahead of the upcoming general elections,
Owojela’s Blog reports.

Google
agreed to pay $40 million for the smartwatch technology of the fashion and
accessory group Fossil, the companies said on Thursday, enabling the California
tech giant to expand in the growing wearable tech market.

Linda Ikeji net worth is rising daily as this entertainment blogger has gone far in her profession to reach this stage. Even Linda was so surprised to realize that her blog worth $1.2 million back in 2012, but I think she now knows better. While some believe that she worth so much, others think it’s just a sham, how could a mere blogger worth anything. Do you care to know Linda Ikeji's 2019 net worth? Iit has grown bigger.

The
presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, said on
Wednesday that he would privatise the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
if elected, describing the state-owned oil firm as a “mafia organisation.”

Do you use Startimes decoder and you are asking how to recharge your Startimes decoder using your phone with you Gtbank account, then you are in the right place. I will be showing you, or rather teaching you how you can recharge your Startimes decoder or rather pay for your Startimes subscription using your GTbank account with your mobile phone in 2019, be it Nokia torch light or any non-smartphone.

Uber is looking to integrate autonomous technology into its bike and scooter-share programs. Details are scarce, but according to 3D Robotics CEO Chris Anderson, who said Uber announced this at a DIY Robotics event over the weekend, the division will live inside Uber’s JUMP group, which is responsible for shared electric bikes and scooters.